


The Making of...ABED, Also Known as Filming Jesus

by merryghoul



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Back to the Future References, Behind the Scenes, Biblical Scripture References (Abrahamic Religions), Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, Episode Review, Episode: s2e05 Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples, Gen, Meta, Meta Essay, Movie Reference, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-29
Updated: 2011-08-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:14:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22354690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: A meta essay for the episode "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples," focusing on Abed and Shirley in the episode.
Relationships: Shirley Bennett & Abed Nadir
Comments: 2
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	The Making of...ABED, Also Known as Filming Jesus

**Author's Note:**

> Pictures from [tvpix on LiveJournal,](http://tvpix.livejournal.com/) except for the Abed photo, taken from [the Wikia for NBC’s Community.](https://community-sitcom.fandom.com/wiki/Messianic_Myths_and_Ancient_Peoples) (That picture was used to replace a gif which is no longer available.) Essay modified to remove some time-sensitive references pertaining to the original release of this episode, to include photo descriptions, and some SPAG changes.
> 
> Title inspired by the movie [_The Making of '...And God Spoke'._](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_'...And_God_Spoke')

(Photo description: Poster of the _ABED_ movie, retitled _Filming Jesus,_ on a Greendale bulletin board. The poster has a closeup of Abed, dressed as Jesus with a long black wig, with the following words in fading white text arranged in a spiral over his face: "FILMING JESUS" starting from his nose and "the story of the story is the story" under his chin, to the right of the poster.)

Shirley Bennett is a Christian woman. She can be a bit insensitive towards others of different faiths and tends to use her faith as a guide of etiquette. In the episode "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples," Shirley is offended by YouTube-like viral videos that Professor Duncan is playing in his (joke of an) anthropology class. Inspired by the videos, she decides to create her own viral video about Jesus. She initially asks Abed (who is Muslim, not Christian) to help make the video; he refuses, stating he'd like to help but he doesn't want to utilize his filming skills to promote any sort of religious message. Then, somewhere between this meeting, pictured below, and another meeting in the Greendale library, Abed read the New Testament.

(Photo description: Picspam of Abed surrounded by drawings and writings on lined paper in the Greendale library, top; Shirley questioning him, bottom.)

> **Abed:** Shirley! I read the New Testament.  
>  **Shirley:** The whole thing?  
>  **Abed:** You know, being raised by TV and movies, I always thought that Jesus just walked on water and told people not to have abortions, but it's so much cooler than that. He was like ET, Edward Scissorhands and Marty McFly combined.

Abed originally saw Christianity (and the stories inside the Bible) as a device to restrict people from doing things, in this case abortion, before having his change of heart and reading the New Testament. It's only after he reads the New Testament, away from Shirley and her beliefs, that he starts attaching pop culture icons he can relate to to the figure of Jesus. Shirley sees Jesus as a savior; Abed sees Jesus as more or less of a superhero.

Shirley, not seeing Jesus as a superhero or even through Abed's pop culture lens, is delighted when Abed agrees to take on her viral video idea.

Except Abed wants to take Shirley's viral video idea even further:

> **Abed:** I want to tell the story of Jesus from the perspective of a filmmaker exploring the life of Jesus...See, in the filmmaker's film Jesus is a filmmaker trying to find God with his camera. But then the filmmaker realizes that he's actually Jesus and he's being filmed by God's camera. And it goes like forever in both directions like a mirror in a mirror because all of the filmmakers are Jesus and all of their cameras are God. And the movie's called _ABED._
> 
> (Photo description: Still of Abed pointing at his written/drawn plans for ABED the movie in the library. In the original essay, this was an animated gif; the gif has now been lost.)
> 
> All caps. Filmmaking beyond film. A meta-film.

This is where [Charlie Kaufman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Kaufman) comes in. Kaufman is best known for writing movies and letting former music video directors direct his scripts (e.g. Spike Jonze and _Being John Malkovich,_ Michel Gondry and _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_ ), although he wrote and directed _Synecdoche, New York._ The plot of _ABED_ sounds similar to the plot of _[Adaptation.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation_%28film%29),_ in which Charlie Kaufman, played in the movie by Nicholas Cage, struggles to adapt the real-life non-fiction book _The Orchid Thief._ Much like _Adaptation._ is a movie written by the screenwriter who appears as himself attempting to adapt a non-fiction book to a fictional screenplay, Abed hopes _ABED_ will be a film about himself looking for God. During the course of the film he instead discovers he is this ET/Edward Scissorhands/Marty McFly hybrid of his dreams. Equating Jesus to pop culture icons intrigues Abed. But when he realizes he can make a film where he can become the pop culture icons he loves, that's when he really gets into the idea of being a Jesus-like figure for the movie.

The idea of _ABED_ starts expanding as Shirley rejects his treatment of her Jesus viral video. (Shirley even calls Abed "Charlie Kaufman." Meanwhile, Abed tells Shirley regarding _ABED_ "You're reacting the way the world did to Jesus.") After Shirley rejects _ABED,_ Abed’s movie is renamed, according to a poster circulated around campus, _Filming Jesus._ The movie becomes a full-scale production on the Greendale campus complete with dollies, posters, Greendale regulars acting as production staff, and Abed believing he is his idea of Jesus.

> (Photo description: Abed, as "Jesus," on a raised dolly on an outdoor portion of Greendale’s campus. Greendale students are below him.)
> 
>  **Abed:** I have arrived. I am watched as I am watching. I am audience and creation. The earth shall know my power.
> 
> (Photo description: Abed, as "Jesus," addressing Greendale students from the dolly.)
> 
> There are no takes. There is no viewer. The film is the story. The story is us. We are the film.

Above all, with the _ABED/Filming Jesus_ project, he has transfixed the Greendale campus. Everyone believes they're a part of the film. Everyone but Shirley likes the movie. Abed's even able to sway Dean Pelton to let him finish his movie (before Abed gives up on the project and Shirley destroys it for him). Greendale went with _ABED/Filming Jesus_ because everyone but Shirley was excited about a prospect of a major motion picture (or something that resembled it) on the Greendale campus.

(Photo description: Four photos of Troy, Shirley, and Britta talking to each other while Abed is on the dolly.)

> **Troy:** This is totally meta.  
>  **Shirley:** Well, let's get back to our non-meta production, shall we? Come on.  
>  **Troy:** Naw, I wanna watch this.  
>  **Shirley:** Troy, there's no time.  
>  **Troy:** Man, we quit. Right, Britta?  
>  **Britta:** I don't even believe in God but I love me some Abed.  
>  **Troy:** Yeah.

(Photo description: Shirley and an unnamed man and unnamed woman, both with red hair, at the poster for _Filming Jesus._ )

> **Shirley:** (reading poster) "The story of the story is the story." _Sure,_ that'll play in Poughkeepsie.  
>  **Red-headed guy:** I heard some theaters are gonna show it in reverse.  
>  **Red-headed girl:** I heard it's the same movie backwards and forward.  
>  **Red-headed guy:** I heard the deleted scenes are the scenes and the scenes are the deleted scenes.  
>  **Shirley:** I heard Jesus died for our sins!

(Photo description: Various scenes of Abed and his influence on Greendale: production staff for _Filming Jesus,_ with Chang, outside; Abed in the middle of a circle formed by people in the cafeteria; Abed sitting down with Sideburns during the making of the movie in the cafeteria; a recreation of the Last Supper in the cafeteria.)

Which brings me back to the question of Abed being a narcissist or a film snob (or both). Abed preparing and in his Jesus-guise made him appear to be narcissistic, but in my opinion, he wanted to keep his idea of _ABED_ alive when Shirley turned his idea down. But I can see how some people could view Abed's actions as narcissistic.

And besides, narcissist or film snob aside, Abed does admit by the end of the episode Shirley keeps him in check and vice versa.

(Photo description: Abed holding Shirley’s hand in class.)

(Cue female members of study group awe-ing.)


End file.
